Tag Archives: online learning

Reading Eggs Review

Reading Eggs

Online Subscription

Reading Eggs Jr. for Ages 2-4

Reading Eggs Ages for 3-7

Reading Eggspress for Ages 7-13

24/7/365 Access

Reading Eggs Special Features

Reading Eggs is an online reading program available for either a 6 month or 1 year subscription.

Reading Eggs contains 120 animated reading lessons (plus additional lessons in Reading Eggs Jr. and Reading Eggspress). Each lesson involves around 12+ tasks or mini-lessons. Some of the other special features of Reading Eggs includes:

Student Dashboard for independent student navigation (and motivation) of lessons, spelling, games, books read, etc.
Phonics
Phonemic Awareness
Letters
Sight Words
Vocabulary
Grammar
Reading Comprehension
Fluency
Songs
Games
Kids earn spending “eggs” they earned for completing lessons and quizzes that can be used in the arcade, designing their avatar, spend in the store, etc.
Printables: Worksheets, Awards for completing Lesson Maps and Quizzes
Over 2,500 Online Books To Read each with a Comprehension Quiz (of 5 to 10 questions each).
Spelling Quizzes / Driving Tests
Parent Dashboard: track lessons and quizzes completed, scores, and books read.
Parent Emails (also keep you updated of student progress)
Homeschool Guide (Grades K-2)
Additional Supplemental Books Available

How Does It Work?

Reading Eggs helps kids succeed in their reading abilities by focusing on mastering skills and strategies which are essential for reading success. The Reading Eggs developers are an experienced team of teachers, educational writers, animators, and website and app developers. Reading Eggs is beneficial for kids just learning to read as well as kids with strong reading skills. It is also beneficial for kids with learning difficulties, struggling readers, and English As A Second Language (ESL).

There are 3 Levels to Reading Eggs and in all it covers kids from ages 2 to 13. No prior knowledge is needed to start the program at the lowest level, Reading Eggs Jr, however those in Kindergarten (and some Preschoolers too) should be able to begin at the Reading Eggs level.

Reading Eggs will actually teach the kids to read through a series of progressive lessons that takes them from not yet able to read to master a second grade reading level. Students with stronger reading skills will progress quicker than beginners. Reading Eggspress is the next level in the program and covers skills from first through sixth grades. This level offers lots of reading comprehension challenges, books, and more learning games.

There is a comprehensive 35 page User Guide available to help parents learn to use the programs.

The basic motivation for kids is to make progress is earning golden eggs they can store up and spend like cash within the program by doing tasks like lessons, quizzes, books, etc. In the Reading Eggs program there are 12 Maps with 10 lessons on each map to master (120 lessons). At the end of each Lesson Map is a quiz for kids to take before they can move forward to the next Map.

Lessons also contain printable black and white activity worksheets as well as colourful activity pages to complete.

The worksheet printables also include lesson plans for each lesson. There are 120 Lesson Plans to help the parent understand the big picture of what the child is learning and how the online lesson and worksheets go together and additional suggestions to enhance the learning skills.

The links for the downloadable printable worksheets that include lesson plans, and more colorful activity pages for each lesson are found in the “bonus” section of the parent dashboard for additional practice.

After completing about five (5) lessons in Reading Eggs, kids will have earned enough eggs to begin using the Games section. At Games, they can choose a game they want to play. The more eggs they earn, the more they can spend, and the more games they can play. Kids love playing games, and games become a reward for the efforts they make, and it motivates them to want to do more.

Reading Eggs now offers a Homeschool Guide for parents for kids in grades K-2. There is a schedule for each grade and it integrates reading, math, science, and social studies and offers a suggested schedule of lessons, activity pages to complete, spelling, books to read, and learning themes. The Homeschool Guide can also be found in the “bonus” section.

Videos:

Watch this video to learn more about Reading Eggs (Math Seeds is now a separate subscription):

Watch this video to learn more about Reading Eggspress (ages 7-13):

Requirements:

Reading Eggs online programs can be accessed on a Computer with high speed internet service and an operating system of Windows 7 (or higher), or Mac 10 (or higher), iPad, and is available on some Smart Phones (Apple, Android, etc). It is currently not supported on some devices (Dell Venue 7, Kindle Fire Tablets, Pendo Pad, Thompson Tablet, or Tesco Hudl Tablets).

Our Experience:

My kids love using Reading Eggs. Reading Eggs is colorful and engaging. This fun program has helped my kids practice reading, spelling, and grammar skills in a fun interactive way.

For the purpose of this review, I will focus on the Reading Eggs level of the program and share with you some of our experience using this program with my 5 year old son who is new to Reading Eggs, and my 10 year old daughter who has some previous experience.

Though it is a “no-fuss” learning program (meaning the kids are not frustrated and resisting to use it), instead it is just the opposite and my kids do fuss if I they don’t get to use it. The kids are very motivated to get on the computer and practice their reading skills each day.

I have my own dashboard when logged in as the parent. I can see my kids progress in each program we are subscribed to. I also receive an email after my kids complete quizzes describing their reading progress and what skills and concepts they learned.

A special feature that I like is the option to choose starting my kids off at a specific lesson (there are about 120 different lessons), or letting them start at default mode which is at the beginning lesson on Map 1, or I can have the kids take the placement test. The placement test includes 60 questions. The test stops when the kids miss 3 questions and places them at the level where the missed questions corresponds to their skills. A parent can choose for the kids to continue where the placement test says they should be, or have them “Redo Placement Test”, or you can just adjust the lesson they are on within any level without retaking the test.

My kids also have their own dashboard when logged in as the student.

Even the youngest of kids are able to learn how to navigate their dashboard after a few times of using it because of the colorful pictures.

From the kids dashboard they can navigate around Reading Eggs. They can read stories, do spelling, quizzes, games, shop, etc. To get to their Lesson Map, they choose the “My Program” link and it takes them to their books and lesson options. Then they can choose the Lesson link and it brings them to their Lesson Map.

Here is my 5 year old son pointing to his avatar when it was on lesson 9 on Map 1.

Another fun feature for Kids is to design their own avatar for their dashboard. There are unlimited options in the design.

When they have unlocked more of the program based on their lessons, more options show up on their “Program” page. In this picture below, you can see how my daughter’s page differs from her younger brother’s page. She had master 106 lessons and was ready to start lesson 107.

After they choose “Lesson”, it takes them to the Lessons Map and hers opens up to lesson 107 on Map 11.

Another favorite feature for my kids is the driving test. Each of my kids are different, but my daughter especially enjoys doing these.

Math Seeds

We were also given a complimentary subscription to Math Seeds and I wanted to briefly mention it here. It is an online math program that operates in a similar way to Reading Eggs.

Math Seeds was created by the same team that created Reading Eggs and shares the same dashboard with Reading Eggs if you have subscribed to both programs. However, you have the option to only subscribe to Math Seeds or only to Reading Eggs if you wish.

In Math Seeds, my kids collected golden acorns to spend instead of eggs. Math Seeds involves 180 lessons with numbers and math skills for kids ages 3 to 9 years old. They have recently expanded the program to cover some skills at the third grade level (including times tables fractions, angles, subtraction with regrouping, etc).

Math Seeds Video

Here you can see the parent dashboard that shows one of my kids Math Seeds progress. We haven’t spent a lot of time in Math Seeds yet as we mainly focused on Reading Eggs during this review.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

Access 24/7/365 (use it anytime on your schedule)
Kids love it.
Kids can complete online lessons independently or you can expand learning with parents and additional lesson printables and suggested reading that reinforce the learning.
Proven reading improvement.
Affordable ($49 for 6 months and $59 for 1 year).
Keeps parents/teachers informed of progress (emails and dashboard reports).
Parents can tweak program by moving child ahead or back in lessons, and can have child repeat placement test if desired.
Printables
Homeschool Guide

Cons:

Non-Christian Worldview. May or may not be a good fit for everyone.

This “con” won’t pertain to everyone, but some religious objections may arise to the non-Christian worldview and undertones of some lessons and book options within the program. Some families choose to homeschool rather than send their kids to public school for religious reasons. This program is used in state sponsored public schools in the USA, and other countries and corresponds to common core education and also has many non-Christian themes that some families do not wish their kids to participate in.

Thankfully, parents can tweak the lessons if they see themes they might object to by skipping a specific lesson and moving the child up to the next lesson, or choosing not to read a specific book. Another way to use the program is avoid using the books that you object too, but still have the kids take the lessons and read other books, and then use what was in the lesson as a teaching point of discussion about your faith with your kids, and this is the way we handled it. You have some flexibility to make these adjustments through the parent dashboard.

Overall, kids of all ages like the Reading Eggs programs. With all of it’s colorful interactive games and ability to earn spendable eggs and awards for achievements, it is easy understand why it is so successful in teaching and motivating kids to read.

If you would like to try before you buy, be sure to try out the free lesson on their website, or sign up to get your 4 Week Free Trial subscription.

Social Media

Keep up with all the lasted news, product updates, free offers, and special sales at the social media links for Reading Eggs:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCA/
• Instagram (handle): readingeggs
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs @readingeggs
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/readingeggs/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCReadingEggs

Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using Reading Eggs in their home.

Please share.

IXL Math and Language Arts Review

Membership

Online Membership Subscription can be purchased for either a monthly or yearly subscription for Math, or Language Arts, or for both subjects together. You can purchase the program for one student or for several students too. See the descriptions below for the pricing combinations, and the website has additional information so be sure to check that out and find the right combination for your homeschool needs.

Math

Grades PreK-12
$79 per year or $9.95 per month

Language Arts

Grades 2-8
$79 per year or $9.95 per month

Both Math and Language Arts

$129 per year or 15.95 per month.

Each additional student is only $20 per year (or $2 per month).

How We Are Using IXL:

We were given a 1 year family membership and it came just in time to add this into our daily learning activities for this school year. It has provided us with practice of new skills as well as review of previous skills we have learned. We are using IXL as a supplement to our regular curriculum and practice for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

The program is easy and fun to do because it is set up in a way that encourages kids natural desire to play and find rewards. My kids like a challenge and they are motivated to fill in their game board with rewards. IXL encourages them to earn awards on themed game boards that are like treasure hunts. Each grade level has it’s own game board with it’s own theme. So when my kids log in to IXL, they get a screen with grade options to choose from. Most of the time we work in our current grade level, but sometimes we go back and practice in a younger grade level for review too.

There are two ways to access the practice skills once they have clicked on the grade they want to work on. Kids can choose from a list of skills or they can choose to work from a game board.

When they choose a skill to work on from the huge list:

When ever they complete a skill on the list, they recieve a ribbons for progress or a gold medal showing they are done learning that skill. The kids like earning medals and find the list approach to be an easy way to keep track of what they have completed, where to go next, and where they still need more work.

When they choose to work on a skill through the game board:
Working from the game board approach, it is rewards based and this is my boys favorite way. It is more random, so you don’t know what skill will be required until you click on a square on the board.

On the game board, the kids uncover the hidden treasures as they complete quizzes and master skills. Awards are fun badges that are revealed on the board. These rewards might be animals, foods, places, and hobbies that kids can relate to and enjoy.

At anytime kids can click on the awards button at the top of the screen and it will show them their game board with the prizes they have achieved, and empty spaces they still need to fill. Kids can also click on a “? mystery square” to learn what “challenge task” they need to complete to reveal that specific mystery prize. When ready, they can return to the list of skills and select the one (or several) that corresponds with the task or skill or group of skills they need learn so they can achieve the next prize on their game board. Each time a new skill is mastered, a prize is placed in a corresponding square, but what thrills my kids the most is to earn the prize that goes into the “?mystery?” square.

Kids and parents can easily monitor progress. On the progress / score page, one can learn how much time they spent, how many problems they finished and how many they got correct, and how many overall total points they have earned in the program, etc.

I can see my kids improve in their understanding of math and language concepts as they practice each skill set. I am also sent an email on a regular basis, letting me know how the kids are doing and what they have achieved.

It is easy to keep track of my kids progress with weekly emails updates and also by logging in on the parent dashboard. On the dashboard I can see and print various reports and acheivement awards. I can also adjust challenges that I want them to work on if I choose to do so. All I need to do is log in and choose the student I want to review. IXL is a great supplemental learning program and I would encourage everyone to give it a try and see if it works for your homeschool needs.